Our visit to the relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis

The relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis, a section of his pericardium, visited St. Anthony’s Church in Wythenshawe, Manchester, from September 20 to 23, 2024. This event attracted over 5,000 pilgrims, including many young families, who came to venerate the relic of the soon-to-be canonized “first millennial saint” .​

During the visit, we had the opportunity to pray before the relic, participate in a special Mass, and attend talks by Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo, who has closely followed Carlo’s life.

The visit to was part of a broader tour across the UK and Ireland, aiming to inspire faith and devotion among the faithful, especially the youth.

It was a pleasure and a joy for our children to be part of such an important event.

Home prayer bag launch assembly

“Dear God,
Thank you for the gift of our families and our homes.
Help us to make time for You in our everyday lives.
As we launch our Home Prayer Bags today, may they bring peace, love, and joy to every home they visit.
Amen.”

Advent adventure trail and CotW

To help pupils reflect on the journey to Christmas through Scripture, symbols, and action we set up an advent adventure trail around school—following the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

At each station we read a short piece of scripture and reflection. It was a wonderful way for all children and staff to experince the advent story

Catholic social teaching celebration week

Our Catholic Social Teaching (CST) Celebration Week was a great opportunity to reflect on and promote the core principles of CST in our school.

The prayer leaders led a some special assemblies and shared the key themes of:

• Living the Gospel Through Action
• Faith in Action: Walking with the Poor and Vulnerable
• Caring for Our Common Home” (based on Laudato Si’ by Pope Francis)
• Called to Serve: Living Out Catholic Social Teaching
• Justice, Peace, and Human Dignity for All

Then the children completed some special acitvites in their classrooms which we put on display outsdie of our school hall.

Jubilee REtreat day

Our Jubilee RE Treat Day was a beautiful blend of spiritual reflection, celebration, and learning tied to the jubilee year in The Church. “Pilgrims of Hope”was our theme fro this REtreat day, aligned with the 2025 Jubilee Year declared by Pope Francis. It offered all children and staff an amazing opportunity to take ourselves on a journey of faith, reflection, and joyful renewal. We used resources provided by one life music who are a Retreat and Music Ministry that have a passion and belief for delivering original, exciting and faith-filled retreat days for Primary Schools, rooted in Scripture and formed by Christian Values.

Lenten CotW with our parents

Inviting parents into school for Celebration of the Word sessions helps us to builds a strong faith community and connects home and school in a powerful way. It has helped our parents feel part of their child’s spiritual journey, and it also gave our children a chance to see faith modeled across generations. Each Thursday over the season of Lent we invited our parents in to share in a celebration of The Word session led by their children.

Lenten art work – whole school project

Our whole school Lenten art project was a meaningful and visual way to help students enter into the spirit of Lent. Lent is a season of reflection, transformation, and preparation for Easter, and exploring this through art gave our students a way to express that journey in creative, faith-filled ways. Once we had completed all of our amazing art work we created a whole school display and invited our parents in to see what we had created.

Lenten adventure trail – stations of the cross

Our Lenten adventure trail was a really powerful and engaging way to get our children actively involved in their faith journey by moving, reflecting, and praying their way through Lent. We travelled around the stations of the cross outside listening to a range of scripture readings and taking part in prayers and reflections based on each station. The year six children took a lead role in this and paired up with some of our children from EYFS across the trail.